Graeme Bell, PhD

Graeme Bell, PhD, is the Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. He is Director of the University of Chicago Diabetes Research and Training Center and a leading authority on the genetics of diabetes mellitus.

Dr. Bell cloned the human insulin cDNA and gene and showed that common variation in the human insulin gene contributes to the development of type 1 diabetes. He and his longtime collaborator, Dr. Nancy Cox, showed that mutations in the genes for the glycolytic enzyme, glucokinase, and the transcription factors, HNF-1a, HNF-1b and HNF-4a, caused an early-onset form of diabetes called maturity-onset diabetes of the young or MODY. Once thought to be a very rare form of diabetes, MODY represent 1 percent to 5 percent of cases of diabetes, and correct genetic diagnosis can alter treatment and improve clinical outcome. Dr. Bell’s search for the genetic causes of diabetes continues, and he, Dr. Cox, Dr. Donald F. Steiner and Dr. Louis Philipson recently showed that mutations in the insulin gene were a common cause of diabetes with onset in the first few months of life.

Dr. Bell is a professor in the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine and Department of Medicine and a member of the Committee on Genetics, Genomics, & Systems Biology, Committee on Molecular Pathogenesis & Molecular Medicine, Committee on Molecular Metabolism & Nutrition and Committee on Clinical & Translational Science. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles.

Education

University of Calgary (Canada)

University of California – San Francisco

Awards and Honors

Elliot P. Joslin Research and Development Award – American Diabetes Association

Mary Jane Kugel Award – Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International

Rolf Luft Award – Swedish Medical Society

William C. Stadie Award of the Greater Philadelphia Affiliate of the American Diabetes Association